Raissa Contreras is a filmmaker & artist in Baltimore. She has an MA in Film & Video from MICA & an MFA in Painting from University of New Mexico. She has taught film and media studies in the Electronic Media & Film Department at Towson University and art and art history at MICA, Towson University and Goucher College. She served on the selection team for the Le Petit Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

​

Her work has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her paintings, drawings, & film stills have shown in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New Mexico and are in private collections across the country. She received a MD State Individual Artist's Grant for Media Arts in  2019.

​

Her most recent film, The Bel Loc Diner, made its world premiere in LA with the Golden State Film Festival at Grauman's Chinese Theater and in NY at the Anthology Film Archives in 2019. It won Best Cinematography for Short Doc with the Silver State Film Fest. In 2020, it screened with the Reykjavik Int'l Film Fest and the Miami Int'l Film Fest.  Jaime & the Tamales screened in Kolkata, India in 2019, with the L'Age d'Or Int'l Arthouse Film Fest, where it won Best Women's Film. It premiered in LA in 2018 with the Silicon Beach Film Fest and rec'd Best Cinematography for Short Doc. It premiered in NY at the Anthology Film Archives in 2017. In 2021, it screened with the Fisura Experimental Film Festival in Mexico City. Porkchop and the 28th St North Carolina Watermelons premiered in NY with the 10th Annual Bushwick Film Festival in 2017. It screened in Miami with the Silicon Beach Miami Festival, February 2018 where it rec'd the Audience Award for Short Documentary. It rec'd Special Jury Award with the Southern Colorado Film Fest in 2016.

​

Her films have also screened with MoMA, LACDA, the Short Film Corner at Cannes Film Festival, LA Cinefest,  Short to the Point Film Festival, Bucharest, Romania, the Puerto Madero Int'l Film Festival, Experiments in Cinema, The Cutting Room, Nottingham, UK, Exposure 2013 NYC, the Short Film Festival of Los Angeles, the New York Short Film Festival, the Golden Gate Documentary & Fiction Festival, and the Festival du Cinema de Paris.